Blue Jays’ Games: Postponed, G20

By Bill Mann

Baseball fans who checked scores for the Pacific Coast League on May 19 , 1980, saw something unforgettable: :

Portland at Tacoma, postponed, volcano

The previous day, Mt. St. Helen’s had blown its top.

Another memorable listing may be coming up:

Philadelphia at Toronto, moved, economic summit

The Blue Jays are moving their important, three-game inter league series to Philadelphia later this month – depriving Toronto fans the chance to see the return of their former ace, Roy Halladay,traded away to the Phillies. It’s all because of the G20 economic summit meetings scheduled for Toronto June 26-27.

It’s Canada’s turn in the rotation to host the key economic meetings of world leaders. The G8 meetings will take place about 150 miles north of Toronto, in rural, much-easier-to-secure Huntsville, Ont., on June 25-26 before moving south to the core of Canada’s largest city and financial district. The July, 2001 summit in Genoa, Italy, police are well aware, became an urban militarized zone, with over 200,000 protesters. One was shot dead by an Italian Carabinieri.

Part of the extraordinary security measures surrounding the meeting of world leaders – which is estimated to cost Canada almost $1 billion (CDN) includes, incredibly, a secret suburban location for the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) — if needed.

The heart of Toronto’s financial district on Bay Street is located within a security perimeter that includes a three-meter-high chain-link fence. (Shades of the walled-off Vancouver Olympic torch).

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that the trading floors at the big Canadian banks, where thousands of deals a day are done in everything from pork bellies to government bonds, also have established backup locations — miles from downtown, in Toronto suburbs.

Law firms headquartered downtown have booked hotel rooms for crucial “deal teams” who are working on time-sensitive negotiations that can’t stop for protests.

Alpha Group, which runs the country’s second-largest stock market from offices just outside the inner G20 security perimeter, is also shifting to its full business-continuity plan and will move much of its 40-person operation to a backup site about 25 miles from downtown, said Chief Executive Officer Jos Schmitt. The facility is at a location Alpha won’t disclose, and offers all the equipment necessary to continue trading, he said.

TMX Group Inc., operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, also has a full facility located at a secret address in the city’s suburbs. Most market operations staff already work there, so there should be no disruption, said spokeswoman Carolyn Quick.

The extraordinary security precautions in this normally well-mannered city, Canada’s financial center, have also forced the city to shut down one of Canada’s most-recognizable tourist attractions — the CN Tower

On the other hand, if you’re a tourist in Toronto during G20 and you want to see Mounties, there’ll be plenty of them around. Quebec, as one example, is sending a detachment of over 200 RCMP constables to bolster G20 security.

The Jays’ home attendance at Rogers Centre has been woeful this year. A return of Halladay would have greatly helped the team’s bottom line.

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) may have come up with the most Canada-centric frame of reference for the G20’s security costs. On its websitethis week, these statistics were posted to help Canucks get a handle on the back-to-back G8/G20’s $900, million-plus security costs:

“That’s a year’s supply (about three litres) of maple syrup for every man, woman and child in the country. There’d be enough money left over to mail souvenir containers of the stuff to the leaders and their entourages. And maybe even a T-shirt, too.”